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Always Encrypted with secure enclaves expands confidential computing capabilities of [Always Encrypted](always-encrypted-database-engine.md) by enabling in-place encryption and richer confidential queries. Always Encrypted with secure enclaves is available in [!INCLUDE[sql-server-2019](../../../includes/sssql19-md.md)] and in [!INCLUDE[ssSDSfull](../../../includes/sssdsfull-md.md)].
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Always Encrypted with secure enclaves expands confidential computing capabilities of [Always Encrypted](always-encrypted-database-engine.md) by enabling in-place encryption and richer confidential queries. Always Encrypted with secure enclaves is available in [!INCLUDE[sql-server-2019](../../../includes/sssql19-md.md)] and in [!INCLUDE[ssSDSfull](../../../includes/sssdsfull-md.md)].
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Introduced in [!INCLUDE[ssSDSfull](../../../includes/sssdsfull-md.md)] in 2015 and in [!INCLUDE[sssql16](../../../includes/sssql16-md.md)], Always Encrypted protects the confidentiality of sensitive data from malware and high-privileged *unauthorized* users: DBAs, computer admins, cloud admins, or anyone else who has legitimate access to server instances, hardware, etc., but should not have access to some or all of the actual data.
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Introduced in [!INCLUDE[ssSDSfull](../../../includes/sssdsfull-md.md)] in 2015 and in [!INCLUDE[sssql16](../../../includes/sssql16-md.md)], Always Encrypted protects the confidentiality of sensitive data from malware and high-privileged *unauthorized* users: Database Administrators (DBAs), computer admins, cloud admins, or anyone else who has legitimate access to server instances, hardware, etc., but should not have access to some or all of the actual data.
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Without the enhancements discussed in this article, Always Encrypted protects the data by encrypting it on the client side and *never* allowing the data or the corresponding cryptographic keys to appear in plaintext inside the [!INCLUDE[ssde-md](../../../includes/ssde-md.md)]. As a result, the functionality on encrypted columns inside the database is severely restricted. The only operations the [!INCLUDE[ssde-md](../../../includes/ssde-md.md)] can perform on encrypted data are equality comparisons (only available with [deterministic encryption](always-encrypted-database-engine.md#selecting--deterministic-or-randomized-encryption)). All other operations, including cryptographic operations (initial data encryption or key rotation) and richer queries (for example, pattern matching) are not supported inside the database. Users need to move their data outside of the database to perform these operations on the client-side.
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Without the enhancements discussed in this article, Always Encrypted protects the data by encrypting it on the client side and *never* allowing the data or the corresponding cryptographic keys to appear in plaintext inside the [!INCLUDE[ssde-md](../../../includes/ssde-md.md)]. As a result, the functionality on encrypted columns inside the database is severely restricted. The only operations the [!INCLUDE[ssde-md](../../../includes/ssde-md.md)] can perform on encrypted data are equality comparisons (only available with [deterministic encryption](always-encrypted-database-engine.md#selecting--deterministic-or-randomized-encryption)). All other operations, including cryptographic operations (initial data encryption or key rotation) and richer queries (for example, pattern matching) aren't supported inside the database. Users need to move their data outside of the database to perform these operations on the client-side.
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Always Encrypted *with secure enclaves* addresses these limitations by allowing some computations on plaintext data inside a secure enclave on the server side. A secure enclave is a protected region of memory within the [!INCLUDE[ssde-md](../../../includes/ssde-md.md)] process. The secure enclave appears as an opaque box to the rest of the [!INCLUDE[ssde-md](../../../includes/ssde-md.md)] and other processes on the hosting machine. There is no way to view any data or code inside the enclave from the outside, even with a debugger. These properties make the secure enclave a *trusted execution environment* that can safely access cryptographic keys and sensitive data in plaintext, without compromising data confidentiality.
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Always Encrypted *with secure enclaves* addresses these limitations by allowing some computations on plaintext data inside a secure enclave on the server side. A secure enclave is a protected region of memory within the [!INCLUDE[ssde-md](../../../includes/ssde-md.md)] process. The secure enclave appears as an opaque box to the rest of the [!INCLUDE[ssde-md](../../../includes/ssde-md.md)] and other processes on the hosting machine. There's no way to view any data or code inside the enclave from the outside, even with a debugger. These properties make the secure enclave a *trusted execution environment* that can safely access cryptographic keys and sensitive data in plaintext, without compromising data confidentiality.
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Always Encrypted uses secure enclaves as illustrated in the following diagram:
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@@ -34,7 +34,7 @@ When parsing a Transact-SQL statement submitted by an application, the [!INCLUDE
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- When processing the statement, the [!INCLUDE[ssde-md](../../../includes/ssde-md.md)] delegates cryptographic operations or computations on encrypted columns to the secure enclave. If needed, the enclave decrypts the data and performs computations on plaintext.
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During statement processing, both the data and the column encryption keys are not exposed in plaintext in the [!INCLUDE[ssde-md](../../../includes/ssde-md.md)] outside of the secure enclave.
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During statement processing, both the data and the column encryption keys aren't exposed in plaintext in the [!INCLUDE[ssde-md](../../../includes/ssde-md.md)] outside of the secure enclave.
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## Supported enclave technologies
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To ensure an index on a column that is encrypted using randomized encryption doesn't leak sensitive data, the key values in the index data structure (B-tree) are encrypted and sorted based on their plaintext values. Sorting by the plaintext value is also useful for processing queries inside the enclave. When the query executor in the [!INCLUDE[ssde-md](../../../includes/ssde-md.md)] uses an index on an encrypted column for computations inside the enclave, it searches the index to look up specific values stored in the column. Each search may involve multiple comparisons. The query executor delegates each comparison to the enclave, which decrypts a value stored in the column and the encrypted index key value to be compared, it performs the comparison on plaintext and it returns the result of the comparison to the executor.
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Creating indexes on columns that use randomized encryption and are not enclave-enabled remains unsupported.
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Creating indexes on columns that use randomized encryption and aren't enclave-enabled remains unsupported.
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An index on a column using deterministic encryption is sorted based on ciphertext (not plaintext), regardless if the column is enclave-enabled or not.
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> [!IMPORTANT]
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> Microsoft strongly recommends enabling [Accelerated database recovery (ADR)](../../backup-restore/restore-and-recovery-overview-sql-server.md#adr) for your database, **before** creating the first index on an enclave-enabled column encrypted with randomized encryption. ADR is enabled by default in [!INCLUDE[ssSDSfull](../../../includes/sssdsfull-md.md)], but not in [!INCLUDE[sql-server-2019](../../../includes/sssql19-md.md)].
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With the [traditional database recovery process](/azure/sql-database/sql-database-accelerated-database-recovery#the-current-database-recovery-process) (that follows the [ARIES](https://people.eecs.berkeley.edu/~brewer/cs262/Aries.pdf) recovery model), to undo a change to an index, SQL Server needs to wait until an application provides the column encryption key for the column to the enclave, which can take a long time. Accelerated database recovery (ADR) dramatically reduces the number of undo operations that must be deferred because a column encryption key is not available in the cache inside the enclave. Consequently, it substantially increases the database availability by minimizing a chance for a new transaction to get blocked. With ADR enabled, SQL Server still may need a column encryption key to complete cleaning up old data versions but it does that as a background task that does not impact the availability of the database or user transactions. You may, however, see error messages in the error log, indicating failed cleanup operations due to a missing column encryption key.
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With the [traditional database recovery process](/azure/sql-database/sql-database-accelerated-database-recovery#the-current-database-recovery-process) (that follows the [ARIES](https://people.eecs.berkeley.edu/~brewer/cs262/Aries.pdf) recovery model), to undo a change to an index, SQL Server needs to wait until an application provides the column encryption key for the column to the enclave, which can take a long time. Accelerated database recovery (ADR) dramatically reduces the number of undo operations that must be deferred because a column encryption key isn't available in the cache inside the enclave. Consequently, it substantially increases the database availability by minimizing a chance for a new transaction to get blocked. With ADR enabled, SQL Server still may need a column encryption key to complete cleaning up old data versions but it does that as a background task that doesn't impact the availability of the database or user transactions. You may see error messages in the error log, indicating failed cleanup operations due to a missing column encryption key.
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## Security considerations
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The following security considerations apply to Always Encrypted with secure enclaves.
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- The security of your data inside the enclave depends on an attestation protocol and an attestation service. Therefore, you need to ensure the attestation service and attestation policies, the attestation service enforces, are managed by a trusted administrator. Also, attestation services typically support different policies and attestation protocols, some of which perform minimal verification of the enclave and its environment, and are designed for testing and development. Closely follow the guidelines specific to your attestation service to ensure you are using the recommended configurations and policies for your production deployments.
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- Encrypting a column using randomized encryption with an enclave-enabled column encryption key may result in leaking the order of data stored in the column, as such columns support range comparisons. For example, if an encrypted column, containing employee salaries, has an index, a malicious DBA could scan the index to find the maximum encrypted salary value and identify a person with the maximum salary (assuming the name of the person is not encrypted).
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- If you use Always Encrypted to protect sensitive data from unauthorized access by DBAs, do not share the column master keys or column encryption keys with the DBAs. A DBA can manage indexes on encrypted columns without having direct access to the keys, by leveraging the cache of column encryption keys inside the enclave.
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- The security of your data inside the enclave depends on an attestation protocol and an attestation service. Therefore, you need to ensure the attestation service and attestation policies, the attestation service enforces, are managed by a trusted administrator. Also, attestation services typically support different policies and attestation protocols, some of which perform minimal verification of the enclave and its environment, and are designed for testing and development. Closely follow the guidelines specific to your attestation service to ensure you're using the recommended configurations and policies for your production deployments.
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- Encrypting a column using randomized encryption with an enclave-enabled column encryption key may result in leaking the order of data stored in the column, as such columns support range comparisons. For example, if an encrypted column, containing employee salaries, has an index, a malicious DBA could scan the index to find the maximum encrypted salary value and identify a person with the maximum salary (assuming the name of the person isn't encrypted).
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- If you use Always Encrypted to protect sensitive data from unauthorized access by DBAs, don't share the column master keys or column encryption keys with the DBAs. A DBA can manage indexes on encrypted columns without having direct access to the keys by using the cache of column encryption keys inside the enclave.
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## <aname="anchorname-1-considerations-availability-groups-db-migration"></a> Considerations for business continuity, disaster recovery, and data migration
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When configuring a high availability or disaster recovery solution for a database using Always Encrypted with secure enclaves, make sure that all database replicas can use a secure enclave. If an enclave is available for the primary replica, but not for the secondary replica, any statement that attempts to use the functionality of Always Encrypted with secure enclaves will fail after the failover.
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When you copy or migrate a database using Always Encrypted with secure enclaves, make sure the target environment always supports enclaves. Otherwise, statements that use enclaves will not work on the copy or the migrated database.
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When you copy or migrate a database using Always Encrypted with secure enclaves, make sure the target environment always supports enclaves. Otherwise, statements that use enclaves won't work on the copy or the migrated database.
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Here are the specific considerations you should keep in mind:
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- Clustered indexes can't be created on enclave-enabled columns using randomized encryption.
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- Enclave-enabled columns using randomized encryption can't be primary key columns and cannot be referenced by foreign key constraints or unique key constraints.
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- In [!INCLUDE[sql-server-2019](../../../includes/sssql19-md.md)] (this limitation does not apply to [!INCLUDE[ssSDSfull](../../../includes/sssdsfull-md.md)]) only nested loop joins (using indexes, if available) are supported on enclave-enabled columns using randomized encryption. For information about other differences among different products, see [Confidential queries](#confidential-queries).
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- In-place cryptographic operations cannot be combined with any other changes of column metadata, except changing a collation within the same code page and nullability. For example, you cannot encrypt, re-encrypt, or decrypt a column AND change a data type of the column in a single `ALTER TABLE`/`ALTER COLUMN` Transact-SQL statement. Use two separate statements.
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- In [!INCLUDE[sql-server-2019](../../../includes/sssql19-md.md)] (this limitation doesn't apply to [!INCLUDE[ssSDSfull](../../../includes/sssdsfull-md.md)]) only nested loop joins (using indexes, if available) are supported on enclave-enabled columns using randomized encryption. For information about other differences among different products, see [Confidential queries](#confidential-queries).
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- In-place cryptographic operations cannot be combined with any other changes of column metadata, except changing a collation within the same code page and nullability. For example, you can't encrypt, re-encrypt, or decrypt a column AND change a data type of the column in a single `ALTER TABLE`/`ALTER COLUMN` Transact-SQL statement. Use two separate statements.
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- Using enclave-enabled keys for columns in in-memory tables isn't supported.
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- Expressions defining computed columns cannot perform any computations on enclave-enabled columns using randomized encryption (even if the computations are among the supported operations listed in [Confidential queries](#confidential-queries)).
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- Escape characters are not supported in parameters of the LIKE operator on enclave-enabled columns using randomized encryption.
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- Expressions defining computed columns can't perform any computations on enclave-enabled columns using randomized encryption (even if the computations are among the supported operations listed in [Confidential queries](#confidential-queries)).
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- Escape characters aren't supported in parameters of the LIKE operator on enclave-enabled columns using randomized encryption.
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- Queries with the LIKE operator or a comparison operator that has a query parameter using one of the following data types (that become large objects after encryption) ignore indexes and perform table scans.
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-`nchar[n]` and `nvarchar[n]`, if n is greater than 3967.
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-`char[n]`, `varchar[n]`, `binary[n]`, `varbinary[n]`, if n is greater than 7935.
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- Tooling limitations:
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- The only supported key stores for storing enclave-enabled column master keys are Windows Certificate Store and Azure Key Vault.
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- Importing/exporting databases containing enclave-enabled keys is not supported.
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- To trigger an in-place cryptographic operation via `ALTER TABLE`/`ALTER COLUMN`, you need to issue the statement using a query window in SSMS, or you can write your own program that issues the statement. Currently, the Set-SqlColumnEncryption cmdlet in the SqlServer PowerShell module and the Always Encrypted wizard in SQL Server Management Studio do not support in-place encryption - they move the data out of the database for cryptographic operations, even if the column encryption keys used for the operations are enclave-enabled.
- To trigger an in-place cryptographic operation via `ALTER TABLE`/`ALTER COLUMN`, you need to issue the statement using a query window in SSMS, or you can write your own program that issues the statement. Currently, the Set-SqlColumnEncryption cmdlet in the SqlServer PowerShell module and the Always Encrypted wizard in SQL Server Management Studio don't support in-place encryption - they move the data out of the database for cryptographic operations, even if the column encryption keys used for the operations are enclave-enabled.
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